This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD)

Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD) was in 23 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. APD has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. There were 19 hedge funds in our database with APD holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the eyes of most traders, hedge funds are viewed as worthless, outdated investment tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at the moment, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the moguls of this club, close to 450 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group oversees most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by tracking their best picks, we have revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points annually for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve started sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 23.3 percentage points in 8 months (see the details here).

Just as important, bullish insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are many stimuli for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if “monkeys” know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a peek at the key action encompassing Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD).

How are hedge funds trading Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 23 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 21% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Edgar Wachenheim’s Greenhaven Associates had the largest position in Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD), worth close to $329 million, comprising 9% of its total 13F portfolio. On Greenhaven Associates’s heels is Diamond Hill Capital, managed by Ric Dillon, which held a $79.6 million position; the fund has 0.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Brett Barakett’s Tremblant Capital, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have jumped into Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD) headfirst. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, created the most valuable position in Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD). Millennium Management had 11 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Catapult Capital Management also made a $5.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new APD positions are Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners, Dwight Anderson’s Ospraie Management, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

How are insiders trading Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest six-month time period, Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD). These stocks are E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD), FMC Corp (NYSE:FMC), The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW), Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN), and Sociedad Quimica y Minera (ADR) (NYSE:SQM). This group of stocks belong to the chemicals – major diversified industry and their market caps resemble APD’s market cap.